So, Mangane made the comment about us being a likely destination for M'vila next summer, and Yann himself confirmed he was ready to move.

RM got linked to him around november last year, about the time when Lass was crying about leaving. The news made a huge splash in France, the great RM was going after M'vila, he was interviewed about it, his manager was interviewed about it, and his Rennes president as well. And of course, i think Wenger genuinely considered signing him at the end of last summer.

So by all accounts, Mangane saying that he will join us or Arsenal might just be the words of someone following the media traction behind M'vila. Maybe it's more, maybe he knows for sure we are tracking him, but no base to that whatsoever.

Next summer, we will have a clear out again, Granero is said to have the green light to go anywhere he is wanted, Lass always wants to leave, and Altintop is said to be unhappy. Bar Lass, none of those guys have seen much action, even with Sahin out, so it's unlikely that it gets better.

Enters M'vila, who could join in the likes of Sahin/Alonso/Khedira, to assure the depth in the middle. However, all 4 are international players, 3 of them are young, so the question of playing time is an obvious issue. It might even look greedy to collect such players but it's not a situation that i would put past us.

There is an obvious rotation going on between Khedira and Lass, at least Mou isnt afraid to do it, regardless of what we think. If M'vila joins the fray, it will be a swift transition in that role. It begs the question, whether the same will happen with Sahin/Alonso, after all, Xabi es el puto jefe, and sahin is arguably the most talented young midfielder we have. Of course, one can make the argument that long term, the combination Sahin - M'vila/Khedira will engineer a generation of gold, but short term it's a difficult operation.

For such thing to happen, we would need to find obvious openings in other areas of the pitch where players players can pitch in, and be useful. As in, midfielders adapting to deeper roles and playing as central defenders for example. As the one way to pack so much youth and talent in a single squad is to have a short but extremely versatile group, with a Castilla in Adelante, hopefully more able to help out.

@Adit wrote:Dont want him.Not even as a sub.We have enough players who plays deep already.

Alonso plays deep center and left... he's not fast enough to cover the right. Di Maria and Khedira, depending on the transition, covers the right.

I would love... and i mean love... to see Sahin or Alonso freed up to be more aggressive forward. That's what M'Villa would allow as he can cover sideline to sideline. Just imagine the Xabi being free to really focus on picking out offensive targets from a more aggressive position or jump into the attack and take a shot if open. It would be lethal.

That's what his signing would do. Lass is 50% the player M'Villa is even at this young age.

Also, he addition of M'vila or another DM, makes sense in the tactical scheme we are moving towards. The lone DM in front of the D, that merges with the defense when we attack, and can play the ball safely forward.

Sahin is a deep lying play maker same goes to alonso ,both likes to get the ball in our half and start play from there.So who ever is in midfield should be a player who is capable of going forward and not just sitting back.Also this one dimensional players will become a very big liability if we are going to change our formation in future.

@Adit wrote:Sahin is a deep lying play maker same goes to alonso ,both likes to get the ball in our half and start play from there.So who ever is in midfield should be a player who is capable of going forward and not just sitting back.Also this one dimensional players will become a very big liability if we are going to change our formation in future.

M'Villa can do that... he's just usually asked to cover the entire defensive backline because he's one of the few in the world that can do that. When he's asked to come forward, he's gotten better and better. But watch Xabi when he was at Liverpool. He was way closer to the attack. He's had to take up a deeper position with Madrid due to necessity.

Also, Ozil is struggling with his defensive duties. Having M'Villa helps him immensely too.

First of all M villa addition will make no sense with xabi alonso here.Xabi just cant go forward like he used to be in liverpool due to various reasons(and he was never been that good going forward any way).

1.He is slow2.Has bad ball control /possession keeping3.Cant play with ball when pressured4.LA liga is no EPL ,midfield pressure is bigger here

Thats why he is playing a DLP role here,if xabi was that good at going forward we should be playing like that with lass or khedira as DM but we are not.

Does Mvilla offers more offensively than khedira and lass? dont think so.

@Adit wrote:also if we are going to play Xabi-sahin-Mister X formation,i would chose Vidal over any one.

You got it damn right this time around We won't be playing Xabi-Sahin anytime soon if you ever wondered Sahin will play for Xabi, as deep as him at first, he'll move up later leaving Khedira in DM role

@Adit wrote:also if we are going to play Xabi-sahin-Mister X formation,i would chose Vidal over any one.

You got it damn right this time around We won't be playing Xabi-Sahin anytime soon if you ever wondered Sahin will play for Xabi, as deep as him at first, he'll move up later leaving Khedira in DM role